You've been had!!!

Pacific Views has a quote from Malcom X in their header.

You've been had. You've been took. You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok.

Well Malcom X could have been talking to the various factions of the Republican Party. The old school conservatives have been had by the Bush Republican Party. The Bush Republican Party has no use for a balanced budget or the constitution, both near and dear to the old school Republicans. They know it. Just head over to LewRockwell.com or the American Conservative. And you can read this by life long conservative John Cole.

In the new Republican era, only fetuses , tax shelters, and ‘traditional’ marriage deserve protection. According to the actions of the current Republican party, the rest of us need to be wiretapped, monitored, have our homes inspected for whatever reason without warrants, and are incapable of making decisions on our own. My 20 year affair with the Republican party is coming to an end. I am not voting for any Republican in 2006 at any level, and I will be hard pressed to vote for this party in 2008- unless, of course, Cindy Sheehan is the Democratic candidate. These ‘conservatives’ need abut 10-15 years in the wilderness.

And then we have the religious right. They have been had by the Republicans for over 30 years and most of them still don't get it. The Carpetbagger Report explains:

As the "War on Christians" conference gets underway in DC today, the religious right wants the GOP establishment to know that their movement won't be taken for granted.

Social-conservative groups have warned Republicans that their voters feel unappreciated and frustrated with Congress and that the party must get more aggressive on such values issues as marriage, human cloning, religious freedom and abortion if they want a decent turnout from the conservative base in November. […]

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Let's address values issues," wrote conservative activist Gary Bauer last week in a memo to friends and supporters, noting that 19 states have amended their state constitutions to protect marriage with an average approval vote of 70 percent, yet many lawmakers still shy away.

"What I don't get is, why there is so much reticence on the part of our public servants to defend normal marriage beyond an obligatory press release or applause line in a stump speech?" he said.

I think Bauer is being sincere; he genuinely doesn't understand why James Dobson's wish list hasn't been embraced in full by the GOP leadership as Congress' legislative agenda. The poor guy seems to have no idea that congressional Republicans believe that giving the religious right what it wanted would be electoral suicide.

Now people like Bauer are completely out of touch with reality which may account for their ties to George W. Bush. The Carpetbagger Report does get it.

Jim Backlin, vice president for legislative affairs at the Christian Coalition, told the Washington Times, "Just those three alone — marriage, abortion and religious freedom … that would be really exciting to our grass roots, and it'd probably ensure that the Republicans keep the House and Senate." I can't even begin to understand what makes the Christian Coalition believe this.

First, the GOP would only drive independents and moderate Republicans further away in an election year that's already slated to go the Dems' way. But even more importantly, what Backlin doesn't seem to realize is that his big-ticket demands — most notably an anti-gay constitutional amendment — won't pass. Republicans may enjoy sizable majorities in both chambers, but there still isn't enough support for the top religious right agenda items.

Sorry folks, "You've been had. You've been took. You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok."

Update
I have a related post over at Running Scared.